SEC charges hedge fund managers with defrauding investors

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today separately charged a pair of hedge fund managers and their firms with lying to investors about how they were handling the money invested in their respective hedge funds. The charges are the latest in a series of actions taken by the SEC Enforcement Division and its Asset Management Unit against hedge fund-related misconduct in the markets.

In a complaint filed against Lion Capital Management, the SEC charges that San Francisco-based hedge fund manager Hausmann-Alain Banet and his firm stole more than a half-million dollars from a retired teacher who thought she was investing her retirement savings in Banet’s hedge fund. Banet led the teacher to believe that his hedge fund would invest in the stock market using a long/short equity investing strategy. Instead, Banet brazenly took the teacher’s investment totaling $550,000 and used it to pay unauthorized personal and business expenses, including his home mortgage, office rent, and staff salaries.

In a separate action, the regulator charged Chicago-based hedge fund managers Norman Goldstein and Laurie Gatherum and their firm GEI Financial Services with fraudulently siphoning at least $147,000 in excessive fees and capital withdrawals from a hedge f......................